News, research, and other information of interest to serials catalogers.

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

"Catalog/Cataloging Changes and Web 2.0 Functionality: New Directions for Serials" by Rebecca Kemp

Kemp discusses the organization and presentation of serials data in library catalogs with a particular interest in the relationships between serials.Included is a brief discussion of the application of FRBR concepts to serials and how these concepts along with the use of identifiers (some yet to be created) and superwork records (to fully outline the history of a serial title) could provide a useful framework for the organization of serials data.She also calls for the simplification of cataloging rules, looking to RDA for flexibility for future cataloging needs and citing the CONSER standard record as an improvement currently underway.Outsourcing is another means she cites to simplify the cataloging process.She argues that simpler records have the dual advantage of being more understandable for users and more efficient to create.Another aspect she considers in catalog design, specifically the implementation of web 2.0 functionality.She briefly addresses mash-ups, user-created metadata (a.k.a. tagging), user reviews, and personalization through recommender services as ways of bringing web 2.0 into library catalogs.She also touches on improvements in search technology such as relevance ranking, metasearching, natural language searching, faceted searching, and clustering.How can these advances help users searching for serials titles or articles?Kemp outlines five scenarios for locating known and unknown items, including mock-ups of catalog results screens.Overall, Kemp attempts to cover a lot of ground in this article and as a result does not provide comprehensive coverage on any of the topics included.

Kemp's article can be found in The Serials Librarian, vol. 53, no. 4 (2008), pages 91-112.